Audio Transcript

Mollie Halpern: FBI Director Christopher Wray calls for an urgent and unified approach between government and the private sector to develop a responsible solution to the “Going Dark” problem—which he says is a major public safety issue.

Going Dark is the term used to refer to scenarios when criminal and national security investigators are unable to obtain digital evidence despite lawful authority to do so. 

The FBI was unable to access the content of about 7,800 devices in fiscal year 2017—that’s more than half of all the devices it attempted to access during that timeframe.

Speaking at the International Conference on Cyber Security at Fordham University in New York, Wray explained that each one of those devices is tied to a subject, victim, or threat.

Director Christopher Wray: …when terrorists, spies, and criminals, as they increasingly are, are using encrypted messaging apps to communicate, this is a problem that affects our investigations across the board—human trafficking, counterterrorism, counterintelligence….

Halpern: Wray emphasized that the FBI supports encryption but added that information security programs should be thoughtfully designed so they don’t undermine the lawful tools the FBI needs to keep the country safe.

Wray: We’re not interested in the millions of devices of everyday citizens. We’re interested in those devices that have been used to plan or execute terrorist or criminal activities.

Halpern: To learn more about the Going Dark problem, visit www.fbi.gov. With FBI, This Week, I’m Mollie Halpern of the Bureau.